Child poverty continues to grow, but Boulder County has sixth-lowest rate in Colorado

By Victoria A.F. CamronLongmont Times-Call

Posted:
10/10/2013 08:17:16 PM MDT

Updated:
10/10/2013 08:21:05 PM MDT

Junior Medina, 3, takes a huge bite of a peach while eating breakfast Thursday at the Wild Plum Center in Longmont. Although 85,000 Colorado children younger than 6 live in poverty, Head Start has room for only 14,090, according to the Colorado Children s Campaign.
(
Matthew Jonas
)

The Colorado Children's Campaign presented Boulder County-specific data on the status of children Thursday at the Longmont Civic Center. Some highlights of that data are presented here, but the entire report is available at TimesCall.com.

Population: The number of children in Colorado grew to 1.23 million in 2011, an 11 percent increase from 2000. In Boulder County, the population dropped to 63,175 children, a 6 percent decrease since 2000.

Diversity: In Boulder County, 69 percent of children are white, compared with 58 percent in Colorado

Poverty: Thirteen percent of Boulder County children live in poverty, compared with 18 percent in Colorado and 23 percent in the United States.

Free and reduced-price lunch: Children whose families earn up to 185 percent of the federal poverty level ($23,050 for a family of four) are eligible. In the Boulder Valley School District, 19 percent of students are eligible, compared with 33 percent in St. Vrain and 42 percent in Colorado.

Full-day kindergarten: In the Boulder Valley School District, 23 percent of kindergartners attend full-day kindergarten, compared with 62 percent in the St. Vrain Valley School District (including Weld County) and 70 percent in Colorado.

LONGMONT -- The number of Boulder County children living in poverty rose 19 percent from 2007 to 2011, even as the number of children living in the county fell 1 percent.

Advertisement

Across Colorado, the number of children living in poverty rose 20 percent in that time, according to the Colorado Children's Campaign.

"We're headed in the wrong direction and we're headed there quickly," said Sarah Hughes, research director for the Colorado Children's Campaign. Only Nevada's child poverty rate is rising faster than Colorado's, she said.

In Boulder County, 13 percent of children lived in poverty in 2011 -- the most recent data compiled by the Colorado Children's Campaign -- while 18 percent of Colorado children did, Hughes said.

Hughes, with others from the Colorado Children's Campaign and the Early Childhood Council of Boulder County, presented data on child well-being -- economic status, educational achievement and health -- Thursday morning at the Longmont Civic Center.

The Campaign releases a statewide report, Kids Count, every spring, but focused Thursday on the status of children in Boulder County.

The poverty rate doesn't really show how many families are struggling in Boulder County, however.

The federal poverty level for a family of four was $23,050 in 2012. But a two-parent family with an infant and a preschool-age child would need to earn $74,694 a year to cover the costs of child care, food, transportation, health care and taxes, according to a 2011 report from the Colorado Center on Law and Policy.

"Even if children live in poverty for a short period of time, that can affect their development," Hughes said.

If a child who lives in poverty has other stress factors, such as living with a caretaker who is abusive or using drugs or alcohol, living in a home with violence or living with someone with mental health issues, the chances of that child having developmental delays increases with each issue, according to Harvard University's Center on the Developing Child.

"Overcoming odds like this is going to be very, very difficult for any child," Hughes said.

Poverty can have long-term effects on children, causing developmental delays, lowering academic achievement and increasing the likelihood they drop out of high school -- which makes it more likely they will live in poverty as adults, as well.

Results of the Colorado Student Assessment Program and Transitional Colorado Assessment Program exams show that children who are eligible for free and reduced lunch -- which includes families how earn up to 185 percent above the poverty level -- are significantly behind their classmates.

Hughes reported that in the Boulder Valley and St. Vrain Valley school districts (including the Weld County area of St. Vrain), half of the low-income students are proficient in reading, compared with 88 percent of those not eligible for free and reduced lunch. The gap is similar in math, with 41 percent of low-income students testing proficient, compared with 79 percent of other students.

Early childhood education, particularly quality preschool and full-day kindergarten, can help children overcome the effects of poverty and be better prepared for first grade, said Chris Watney, president and CEO of the Colorado Children's Campaign.

Amy Ogilvie, executive director of the Wild Plum Center, which operates the city's Head Start preschools, said between 50 and 100 students typically are waiting for seats in the federally funded program.

"We always have a waiting list," she said.

But there's another complication this year.

The Head Start program at Casa de la Esperanza closed during the summer because of federal cuts related to sequestration, Ogilvie said. Fifteen students were enrolled there, she said.

The program is busing students to other locations, but the bus is full, so children have to wait for seats on the bus to open, as well as seats in the classrooms, she said.